Principal Investigator

Purpose

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Abstract

This project was carried out by the World Values Study Group, an international association of social scientists that grew out of a study sponsored by the European Values Systems Study Foundation of Amsterdam. This group's first survey, carried out in ten Western European societies in early 1981 (DDA-0829: International Value Project, 1981-1983 (Denmark)), evoked such widespread interest among survey researchers that it was replicated in fifteen additional countries, with funding from various sources. The World Values Study Group coordinates the efforts of the European Values Systems Study Group with social scientists from a number of other institutions, including the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research and the national academies of science of Hungary, Poland and the Soviet Union. # This data collection is designed to enable cross-national comparison of basic values and norms in a wide variety of areas. Broad topics covered are leisure, work, the meaning and purpose of life, family life, and contemporary social issues. # In the section on leisure, the respondents were asked whether they preferred to spend their leisure time relaxing or being active, about groups and associations to which they belonged, how often they read a daily newspaper, the number of hours spent watching television, whether they experience feelings such as loneliness, boredom, restlessness, depression, and happiness, if they feel other people can be trusted, if they feel that they have free choice and control over their lives, and if they are satisfied with life in general. # Topics covered relating to work include aspects important in a job, pride in work, satisfaction with present job and financial situation, and owner/state/employee management of business. # A wide range of items was included on the meaning and purpose of life, such as the respondent's views on the value of scientific advances, things in life which are worth sacrificing everything for, opinions on good and evil, and religious behaviour and beliefs. The respondents were queried regarding closeness among family members, their level of satisfaction with their home life, whether they share the same attitudes towards such things as religion, morality, politics, and sexual norms with their partner and parents, their views on marriage and divorce, and qualities important for a child to learn. # In the final section on social issues, areas covered include the respondent's interest in politics, opinion of various forms of political action, self-placement on a political left-right scale and party identification, the most important aims for the respondent's country, alcohol and alcoholism, confidence in various civil and governmental institutions, and whether divorce, abortion, suicide, cheating on taxes, lying, and other such actions are ever justified